Disposable packages



Jan. 5, 1965 Filed Oct- 9. 1961 D. A. SANNI DISPOSABLE PACKAGES 2Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR.

DOMINIO A. SANNI ATTORN EYS Jan. 5, 1965 o. A. SANNI DISPOSABLE PACKAGES2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Oct. 9. 1961 INVENTOR. DOMINIC A. SANNI 1w ATTORNEYS United States Patent O 3,164,695 DISPOSABLE PACKAGES Dominic A.Sanni, 31 Ledgetree Road, Medfield, Mass. Filed Oct. 9, 1961, Ser. No.143,753 2 Claims. (Cl. 206-56) This invention relates to the art ofhigh-speed packaging and more particularly to disposable, flexiblepackages containing fluid commodities such as ketchup, mustard, and thelike.

In recent years, there has been introduced an assortment of smalldisposable single-service foodstufl packages which are formed from websof paper, cellophane or plastic, and which contain diverse products suchas sugar, salt, pepper, mustard, and ketchup. While the packages whichhave contained solid or granular commodities have gained wideacceptance, the packages which contain liquid commodities such asketchup and mustard have not been as widely accepted because they aremessy to use. These packages generally are rectangular in shape andconsist of two layers of packaging material which are secured togetherat their edges so as to form a pouch therebetween in which the liquidcommodity is contained. Generally, the pouch is opened by tearing it ata corner or across the top. Although mustard and ketchup are viscous,the have a great tendency to leak out of the opened package when it islaid to rest on a dish or other surface. Needless to say, this is quitemessy and unsightly.

The object of the present invention is to provide a new and improvedpackage for liquid commodities having means for sealing ofi the packageafter its contents have been partially consumed, whereby to avoidleakage.

A more specific object of the present invention is to provide a packagefor fluid commodities formed of a resilient non-porous material whichcan be torn open for use and can thereafter be resealed so as to avoidleakage of unused contents.

A further specific object of the present invention is to provide a novelmethod of manufacturing a sealed, fluid-containing package having meansfor reclosing the package after it has been partially used.

Other objects and many of the attendant advantages of the presentinvention will become more readily apparent as reference is had to thefollowing detailed specification when considered together with theaccompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a fluid-containing package embodying thepresent invention;

22 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view similar to FIG. 1 showing the package afterit has been opened;

FIG. 4 illustrates one way that the opened package of FIG. 3 may bereclosed so as to prevent leakage of its contents;

FIG. 4A illustrates another way of reclosing the package so as toprevent leakage; and

FIG. 5 illustrates how the package of FIG. 1 is manufactured.

It is to be understood that the packages which embody the presentinvention may be made of various commercially available materials. Thesematerials may be transparent, translucent or opaque. Among the materialswhich are suitable for use in fabricating the package are polyethylenefilm, cellophane provided with a protective coating such as polyethyleneand other plastic materials which are impervious to fluids and which arenot easily ruptured; In the practice of this invention, it is preferredto use either polyethylene sheeting or cellophane having a polyethylenecoating thereon.

Referring now to FIG. 1, a package embodying the FIG. 2 is a fragmentarysectional view taken along line present invention will generally have arectangular shape and will be formed of two layers, 2 and 4, offlexible, non-porous, relatively high strength material. Preferably,this material comprises an inner layer of polyethlyene and an outerlayer of cellophane, the two layers forming a transparent or translucentlaminate. The two sheets 2 and 4 are secured together at their fourmargins, thereby forming a pouch identified generally at 6 in which acommodity 10 such as ketchup or mustard may be contained. To the extentalready described, the package of FIG. 1 is old.

The present invention consists of providing wire 14 along one sidemargin of the package. The wire 14 is captivated between the two sheets2 and 4 in such a manner that it will not come loose. The wire 14 may bemade of a suitable material which can be bent and which will retain itsbend until forced to a new configuration. The wire will extend for thelength of the package. Preferably, but not necessarily, the wire is cutin two by a slit 18 in the sealed side margin. Preferably also, a secondslit 20 is provided in the opposite side margin. The two slits arelocated close to one end of the package (hereinafter identified as thetop end) and terminate short of the pouch 6. These slits facilitate useof the package.

When the package is to be used, its top end is torn off along the slits18 and 20, leaving the package in the con dition illustrated in FIG. 3with the pouch 6 open for dispensing of the commodity 10 containedtherein. After the package has been used, it is reclosed so that anyunused commodity 10 will not leak out. This is done simply by rolling upthe open end of the package, as illustrated in FIG. 4, or by simplybending the open end over at a sharp angle to the rest of the package,as shown in FIG. 4A. The wire 14 will bend quite easily. However, oncethe wire is bent, it will tend to remain in its bent position. As aconsequence, the wire will prevent the package from unrolling orunbending back to the open condition illustrated in FIG. 3, therebypreventing the contents from escaping.

Of course, the package need not have two slits 18 and 20. One slit willsufiice. Either slit may be retained, in which case the top end of thepackage probably will not be torn off completely but only to theopposite side margin. In other words, the top end will remain attachedto the bag at one side margin.

FIG. 5 illustrates how the package of FIG. 1 may be manufactured two ata time.

In manufacturing the package, two continuously movings webs 2 and 4 offlexible laminar material of the type described previously in connectionwith FIG. 1 are caused to travel downward around a pair of filling tubes24 and 26. As the two webs pass the filling tubes 24 and 26, they areacted on by a pair of opposed longitudinal heated sealing rolls (notshown) which seal the two webs adjacent their edges and also along theircenter lines so as to form two tubular sections into which liquidcommodity can be discharged by the filling tubes. The two longitudinaledge seals are shown at a and b and the center line seal is shown at c.After the webs pass below the two filling tubes, they travel between apair of opposed heated transverse sealing rolls (not shown) which arelocated below the filling tubes and which form a series of evenly spacedtransverse seals d. As each transverse seal d is formed, measuredcharges of commodity 10 are discharged into the two tubular sectionsthrough the two filling tubes 24 and 26. Successive transverse sealstransform the two tubular sections into two series of discrete pouches 6in which the discharged commodity is captivated.

At this point it is to be observed that the longitudinal seals a and band the transverse seals do not extend out to the edges of the two webs.As a consequence the webs are left witha discrete, unsealed,longitudinally extending area e along each edge. Disposed between theedges of the two webs at each area e are identical curved hollow guidetubes 30. Each hollow tube acts to guide an endless strand of wire 14which is fed by a pair of drive rolls 34 at the same surface speed asthe Webs. The guide tubes 30 guide the wires 14 in between the two websat the unsealed areas 2. It is to be noted that only the discharge endsof the two guide tubes 30 extend into the areas e so as not to impedemovement of the two webs. Ata point just below where wire 14 isinserted, the two webs pass between additional heat longitudinal sealingrolls (not shown) which seal together their adjacent edges as indicatedat f. Seals f lock the wires 14 in place between the two webs.

Thereafter the series of pouches passes through a first knife section(not shown) which makes the slits 18 and 20, then through a second knifesection which slits the center seal along its center line as shown at36, and thereafter through a third knife section which covers the websalong the center lines of the transverse seals d as shown at 38, eachtransverse cut forming a pair of identical packages having theconstruction shown in FIG. 2. The knife section which forms slits 18must act with sufiicient force to sever the wire 14.

It is to be noted that the guide tubes 30 do not extend parallel to theedges of the webs; instead they come in at an angle, preferably in therange of 30, which will tend to force wires 14 up against the seals aand b. This is necessary in order not to hamper production of sealsOtherwise, the wires will not feed in properly and will not becaptivated properly; By controlling infeeding of wires 14 and byproperly dimensioning the widths of seals a, b and f, the wirescaptivated in each package will be held tight and will not tend to shiftlongitudinally.

It is to be observed that it is not necessary to make the transverseseals d before inserting the wires 14 between the edges of the webs.Instead, it is possible to insert the wires beforehand, just aftermaking the longitudinal seals a and b or contemporaneously therewith. Inthe latter case the wires would not be fed in via guides 30 but would beintroduced by means of other guides arranged above the sealing rollswhich make seals a and b and also the rolls which make transverse sealsd. However, in order to prevent the wires from wandering, the secondarylongitudinal seals 1 are made contemporaneous with seals a and b. Inthis way, seals 1 are formed as close as possible to the point of entryof the wires. Otherwise, the wires will not be held snugly and theircut-01f sections will tend to slip axially in the packages. This is notonly untidy in appearance, but it also is dangerous since a personhandling the packages may be injured by the projecting end of a wire.

Of course, it is not necessary for the packages to be made twoat a timeas just described. Instead, they may be made one by one. However, sincecosts are. directly affected by the rate of production, it is preferredto make the packages two at a time. It is to beobs erved that if thepackages are made one by one, they need not be made from two separatewebs but can be made from a single web folded longitudinally. The wire14 would be captivated along the single longitudinal seal that isformed.

While wire 14 may be made of a variety of materials, it is preferredthat it be made of a non-corrosive material such as dead soft aluminum.

One of the outstanding advantages of the foregoing method is that itdoes not require construction of a machine which is entirely new.Instead, it is possible to modify a conventional liquid bagging machine.The modifications required to be made to a conventional bagging machineare relatively small, for the most part consisting of the means forfeeding wires 14 at the same linear speed as the packaging material,sealing rolls adapted to make seals a, b and f, and a heavy duty knifecapable of severing wire 14.

Although the primary object of the invention is to elimimate a leakageproblem attendant to packages containing liquid food commodities such asketchup, mustard and the like, it may be used in connection withpackages for other liquid such as lubricating oils, chemicals, drugs,cosmetics, etc. Moreover it may also be embodied in packages containingfree-flowing granular or powdery commodities such as powdered foods,medicines and cosmetics. Accordingly, as used herein, the term fluidshall be understood to include not only liquids and viscous masses butalso free flowingpowders and granular materials.

Obviously, many modifications and variations of the present inventionare possible in the light of the above teachings. It is to beunderstood, therefore, that the invention is not limited in itsapplication to the details of construction and arrangement of partsspecifically described or illustrated, and that within the scope of theappended claims it may be practiced otherwise than as specificallydescribed or illustrated.

What is claimed is:

. 1. A sealed commodity package comprising rectangular front and rearwalls sealed together along their edges to form a sealed pouch, saidpackage containing a fluid commodity within said pouch and a singlebendable bend-retaining Wire, said wire captivated between said walls inthe seal along one edge thereof, said wire extending for the full lengthof said one edge, and an edge slit extending across said seal anddividing said wire into two discrete pieces, whereby to facilitatetearing open one end of said package to permit dispensing of said fluidcommodity.

2. A sealed commodity package comprising rectangular front and rearwalls of heat-scalable fluid-impervious material secured together by topand bottom edge seals and opposite side edge seals so as toform a pouch,a fluid commodity within said pouch, said package containing a singlebendable bend-retaining wire, said wire extending along and captivatedin one of said'side edge seals, said one side edge seal being partlyslit at a predetermined location, said slit dividing'said wire into onerelatively long piece and one relatively short piece, whereby (1) tofacilitate opening said package by tearing off one end along a linestarting with said slit and (2) to permit the opened package to bereclosed by bending back said walls and said relatively long piece ofwire.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITEDSTATES PATENTS1,960,232 Corbe May 29, 1934 2,329,360 Salfisberg Sept. 14, 19432,347,509 Salfisberg Apr. 25, 1944 2,490,057 Irmscher Dec. 6, 19492,760,629 Thagard Aug. 28, 1956 2,923,404 Adell Feb. 2, 1960 2,946,434B-rina July 26, 1960 FOREIGN PATENTS,

France Jan. 18, 1960

1. A SEALED COMMODITY PACKAGE COMPRISING RECTANGULAR FRONT AND REARWALLS SEALED TOGETHER ALONG THEIR EDGES TO FORM A SEALED POUCH, SAIDPACKAGE CONTAINING A FLUID COMMODITY WITHIN SAID POUCH AND A SINGLEBENDABLE BEND-RETAINING WIRE, SAID WIRE CAPTIVATED BETWEEN SAID WALLS INTHE SEAL ALONG ONE EDGE THEREOF SAID WIRE EXTENDING FOR THE FULL LENGTHOF SAID ONE EDGE, AND AN EDGE SLIT EXTENDING ACROSS SAID SEAL ANDDIVIDING SAID WIRE INTO TWO DISCRETE PIECES WHEREBY TO FACIILTATETEARING OPEN ONE END OF SAID PACKAGE TO PERMIT DISPENSING OF SAID FLUIDCOMMODITY.